What Happened: Political Postmortem

A year ago (dear God, how has it been a year?), Hillary Clinton lost the election and I was upset. Now she has written a book about it, entitled What Happened. I genuinely thought I was never going to read this book. Why would I re-live the horror of that day and the subsequent months? But I finally bit the bullet and ordered the book. And shockingly, it was not as devastating as expected.

What Happened is a policy book. It is a clear and articulate description of the kind of President Hillary Clinton would have been. This is a woman who loves to solve problems and chapter-by-chapter she dives into the various internal and external challenges her campaign faced and examines where it all went so heartbreakingly wrong. She keeps re-stating how responsible she felt and how ultimately, she was the one to blame as she was the candidate. But then she lays out a brilliant case for how everyone from the FBI, to Russia, and Facebook, screwed her over. It is an incisive and frankly frightening book about how American democracy was compromised during the 2016 Election, and a wonky but honest dissection of the many, many, many ways in which that glass ceiling proved to still be shatter-proof. 

To be perfectly honest, I'm a little surprised by my reaction to this book. I was convinced I would be in floods of tears, but instead I found it to be a fascinating political memoir that was easy to read and provided substantive food for thought. I don't read much non fiction, especially not about politics, but for the first time, I understood why someone might find this subject so fascinating. Rather than get upset about the election itself and the emotions it engendered, readers will probably be most devastated to read about the future we could have had. Clinton was all set to launch a major infrastructure program, create jobs, fight for a public option to get us closer to universal healthcare, protect women's right to choose, introduce campaign reform, and tackle climate change. But her progressive ideals and basic decency were drowned out in a sea of misinformation and biased reporting that insisted her e-mails were a legitimate scandal while Trump's Russia connections were swept under the rug. 

I voted for Clinton because of her policies. But also because of her overarching message of "Love and Kindness." In the book, her desire to help others and fight for those who don't have a voice is a constant theme. Even in the aftermath of the election, she spent so much time comforting the people who campaigned for her and worrying about how women and girls around the country might be feeling instead of just wallowing in self-pity. That quality is what I personally find so admirable about women in general, and Hillary in particular. The importance of empathy, putting yourself in another's shoes, and trying to feel another's pain so you can come up with a solution is evident over and over again in every single one of her policies. She talks about how a line in one of her speeches was taken out of context and made it appear as though she didn't care about coal miners. But she did care, and she went to West Virginia to talk with people who disagreed with her face-to-face and tell them about her economic plans for them. However, she acknowledges that one of her faults might be her desire to go straight to problem-solving instead of just letting people vent. And perhaps that was her biggest mistake. She tried to help America, when all America wanted to do was whine. I wish the people who didn't vote for her would read this book and properly understand what it is that she wanted to do for them. But alas, I doubt they will. 

What Happened is not a sad book. It is a defiant (occasionally sarcastic), intelligent, and hopeful one. The final chapter ends with Hillary's return to Wellesley College to deliver the 2017 Commencement speech, and in those moments, she is hopeful for the future of our country. It isn't blind optimism; she states, "Things are going to be hard for a long time. But we are going to be okay. All of us." That sentiment is why she would have been a great President. That sentiment is why she is a great woman. 

We are going to be okay. Because after all the events of last year, Hillary Clinton is back. She is frustrated and unhappy about how things turned out. But she is not going to back down and she is still going to help America with that big, wonderful brain of hers. As well as her big, wonderful heart.